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Average Cost/Price to Fit a Thermostatic Radiator Valve (TRV)

To clarify the following prices it is recommended that you read the article in the INFORMATION box below the PRICES…(These prices are based on a tradesman’s rate of £150.00 per day and a labourer if required at £100.00 per day. This includes the cost of buying and collecting any materials, dumping any waste if necessary and any incidental materials they will need. The minimum price will usually be for a half day)

How Much Does It Cost To Change a Thermostatic Radiator Valve (TRV)?

Fitting TRVs, will mean a full or partial drain down of the heating system. So it makes sense that if the heating is drained down already, each additional valve will cost you less.

To drain down, supply and fit one TRV, refill the system and bleed all radiators (it’s not quite as simple as it looks), you are looking at……£100.00

To supply and fit TRVs “all round”, lets say 7 in total……£245.00

To supply and fit a hard wired room stat in the hall, connected to the programmer in the utility room with no plastering..…£275.00

A Price Guide and Information Sheet on Fitting and Installing a Thermostatic Radiator Valve

It happens, doesn’t it? We all feel temperature differently. All of the rooms in your house are toasty but someone wants theirs to be cooler – or hotter (if the mother-in-law is staying).And if you do not have the luxury of my wife’s icy stare to immediately cool things down (this is usually at its most effective about 11.20 on a Friday night), you will have to open a window and allow all of that wonderful heat you paid for to simply dissipate into the cold night sky.

One way around this little problem is to fit thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs). They are relatively cheap and will act like your own little thermostat in each room.

You might be thinking that you could simply turn down the existing valves on your rads.? If you do this however you will make simply the room cooler (by reducing the flow of hot water into your radiator). If that is all you want – a spare room that you don’t use for example, then go ahead. But if you wish to be able to set and maintain a constant temperature, that will automatically adjust itself according to the ambient temperature, then TRVs are for you.

Also, radiator valves aren’t designed to be turned on and off all the time and will very soon start leaking if you do.

You may have noticed that if fitted correctly, one valve on each radiator is designed so that it won’t turn at all. This is called a "lockshield valve" and is to prevent householders from messing up the very fine balancing act the installer has set up between your radiators, to make sure they all get the same amount of hot water.

Do not get a spanner and turn this valve!

Thermostatic Valves

You should never change all the valves to TRVs though, they are mechanical and are neither linked to each other or to the system as a whole. It’s quite possibly therefore, especially if you have them all turned down, that a situation arises where each radiator is turned off (by its TRV) but the boiler, oblivious to this fact, keeps pumping out hot water. This water has nowhere to go, superheats and…. BANG.

That’s a bit far fetched, there should be a bypass in the system or an automatic shut off valve in the boiler. A bathroom radiator however, with no TRV fitted, will prevent this happening because the hot water can still circulate around it. You also get your towels dried.

The ideal system will have TRVs and a room thermostat. This allows you to set a nice warm temperature for the whole house with one simple action. Unused bedrooms can then be further reduced by their TRVs.